Wunderkind
by KartheyM
Summary: AU fanfic, set just after Season 3. Zoe is back on spring break-and once again, strange things are happening in Eureka. A mysterious super-genius, an aborted GD project from decades ago, and a single name. What does it all mean? Featuring: Jack, Zoe, Jo, Allison, and Zane.
1. Chapter 1: The Burglar

_*A/N: This episode is an AU, and would fit in the Eureka timeline sometime after Zoe leaves for college at the end of Season 3._

Sheriff Jack Carter arrived downstairs in the morning to find his daughter, Zoe, home on summer break, lounging on the couch. He stopped.

"And is _this _how you're going to spend your entire summer?" he asked.

Zoe did not open her eyes, "Mm, absolutely, Dad! What about you?"

Carter wagged a finger at his daughter as he grabbed the coffee SARAH the smart-house poured for him, "Don't even go there, honey. Jobs don't have summer breaks, and I have a job. I was lucky Jo said she could handle things for the weekend so I could come all the way to Portland and pick you up at the airport." He playfully smacked her on the head with a magazine and she opened her eyes and grinned at him.

"Seriously, though," Carter continued, "I've been meaning to ask you, how has college been treating you? Any different than Tesla?"

Zoe rolled her eyes, "A _lot_ different, Dad! In some ways, I'm used to being around a bunch of super-geniuses, so in some of my classes I feel a lot smarter than everyone else, but then again, there is _so _much I still can't understand!" She twisted a small strand of hair around her finger thoughtfully. "Dad," she began tentatively, "Have you ever... y'know, thought about what life would be like if I was a Eureka kid?"

Carter dropped onto the couch next to her, "Excuse me?" he asked.

"I mean," Zoe tried to explain, "Like, if you and mom had moved to Eureka before I was born, or maybe you came when I was just a baby, and I became as smart as all the other kids in Eureka; have you ever thought that way?"

Carter shook his head with a wry smile, so Zoe pressed further, "Come on, Dad; they're discovering a billion new things about genetics every day! Sometimes I just feel so stupid and lost when I think about how much I don't know about stuff that the other Eureka kids do. Honestly," she locked eyes with her dad, "If someone at GD came up with a way to boost a kid's intelligence, would you buy into it? Would it be something you'd do for me?"

Carter paused for a long time as he considered the implications of his daughter's question.

"I don't mean to interrupt," SARAH put forth regardless, "but if you don't hurry, Sheriff, you'll be late for work."

Carter jumped up, "Well, I guess we'll have to finish this conversation later," he told Zoe, kissing her on the cheek, "Have a good day, sweetheart."

"Bye, Dad," Zoe replied, disappointment ringing in her voice.

Carter ignored it as he attempted to resume life as normal. The truth was, Zoe's question bothered him because in fact he _had _in the past occasionally toyed with the idea of making Zoe as smart as all the other kids, so nobody could tease her being just average. What if there _was_ a way to expand a person's brain capacity past normal levels, without killing the person? Having genius-level minds certainly did no harm to the other kids in Eureka. Then again, this was his daughter he was dealing with. Would being a genius change their relationship? Could they still relate on the same level if Zoe was super-smart?

Carter shook his head as he pulled up in front of the sheriff's office.

Jo was on the phone when he walked in.

"Uh-huh... okay, and you checked the locks?... All right... Anything else missing or harmed in any way? Ok, we'll look into it as soon as we can. Ok, bye." Just when she was about to hang up, the phone rang again. Carter waved to his deputy, but Jo rolled her eyes and handed him a stack of messages that she had accumulated already in the morning. "Good morning, Sheriff's office, this is Jo," she said into the receiver, then as Carter looked over the messages, she began writing a new one, "Ok, and where was this?" She began writing down the location, then stopped, "Wait, I thought that was abandoned," she remarked to the person on the other side. "Oh... ok, we'll check it out, thank you."

She put the receiver down and slid a hand over her forehead.

Carter read off some of the messages, "The sheets disturbed in a locked guest room at the Williamses? Dr. Marlene says that someone is disturbing her cows? Dr. Tenold wants to report... dirty dishes in the sink?"

"And this," Jo handed him the latest message, "is somebody coming _out _of Beverly's early this morning."

Carter chuckled, "Sounds like a lot of people missed me."

Jo stood up, "No, Carter, _I _missed you; these people actually _needed _you. I've been answering calls all weekend. I almost couldn't leave because everyone just kept calling every time I'd get a chance!" She shook her head, "Gawd, I hope they finish the troubleshooting on Andy soon! I was just beginning to wonder if I would ever miss being your deputy, and the truth is, after this weekend," she stared Carter in the eye, "I don't," she stated.

Carter laid the stack back on Jo's desk. "Well, let me just say that I felt a lot more comfortable leaving the position in the hands of someone who _wouldn't _malfunction. I missed you, Jo, even if you didn't miss me." he winked at his former deputy. "So: it looks like we have an invisible intruder on our hands. Is GD trying something?"

Jo shook her head, "I doubt it. They're doing a bunch of ecological experiments right now; invisibility wouldn't be on the list."

Carter looked again at the last message, "Wait, _Beverly's_? I thought that was boarded up and nobody wanted to go near the place any more."

Jo threw up her hands. "There's definitely something going on."

Carter rolled his eyes as he ran out to his jeep, "Something always is," he muttered.

"Where should we start?"

Carter turned back to Jo, "Ok, with everyone else we can assume that the intruders had some purpose for breaking in; we can handle those later. What we want to know is, why would the person or people go to Beverly's? Are they all still there? I'd say we start with Beverly's and make our way around from there."

"You're the boss," Jo replied, getting into the car with him.

Carter grinned, "Now, see? Andy would never say something like that."

Jo grinned mischievously, "You want to hear me say something else Andy would never say?"

"_No_! Let's just go!"


	2. Chapter 2: In The Refrigerator

Carter pulled the car up in front of Beverly's Bed & Breakfast. He shuddered at the memories this place conjured. "Okay, Jo," he got down to business, "where did the caller say the person came out of, exactly?"

"Dr. Fowler said he was out walking his dog past here when he saw a person open the front door and walk out onto the porch. It was only out of the corner of his eye, but when he stopped and looked, the person was gone."

"Creepy," Carter commented as he approached the porch, eyes peeled for any signs of occupancy, such as footprints. He traveled up the steps slowly, scanning thoroughly for the slightest sign. Everything was just as dusty and dirty as it ought to be. He reached the middle of Beverly's small porch and stopped. "Huh," he grunted.

"See anything?" Jo asked, coming up from the bottom of the steps.

Carter rubbed the back of his neck, "No, that's just it, I don't see anything! Not so much as a footprint." He leaned forward and grabbed the doorknob. It did not moved. He tried jiggling the handle, pushing as hard as he could, trying everything he could think of to open the door, but for all intents and purposes, it was solidly locked. Carter turned back to his deputy, "You're _sure_ Dr. Fowler saw someone come _out _of the building?"

Jo shrugged, "Right out this door, he said."

Carter pounded on the door, "Hello?" He yelled, "Anyone in there?"

No answer. Carter didn't know what to think. He shook his head as he and Jo left the porch.

"Nothing," Jo mused, "So is this how it's going to be everywhere else, too?"

Carter was too confused to talk, "Let's just move on to the next house. Where is it?"

Jo checked the list of people who had complained, "Okay, that would be the Wheelers, just down the street here."

Carter and Jo stopped by the Wheelers, the Jordans, the Tenolds, and the Williamses, but the result was the same: definite, irrefutable evidence that someone had been there, but no plausible reason that they should have been, nor any signs of a typical break-in.

"I don't even think we have just cause to call them break-ins," Carter remarked as they left the Williams' house. "I mean, there are no signs of vandalism, nothing broken, no valuables stolen-"

"Right, all the thief-"

"Well, we don't know if it's a thief!"

Jo sighed, "Intruder, then; all he took was food and clothes sometimes."

They paused by Carter's Jeep to finish the conversation.

"Plus, it's not even like the intruder found open doors or windows or anything," Carter added, "Almost as if he could unlock any door in Eureka."

Jo rolled her eyes, "Great, so we have to make sure that everyone in Eureka changes their locks to be safe from... whomever this is?"

"Well, if it's not invisibility or phasing through walls-"

Jo considered this, "Yeah, that's the weirdest thing; everyone who was home during the-invasions-remembers hearing the door open in the middle of the night, but no one in the house at the time was responsible."

Carter rubbed his chin in deep, agitated thought, "We're dealing with someone smart enough to pick any lock in town."

"And disable security systems," Jo put in, "remember? the Jordans and the Williamses both have Bilmer 3000 alarm systems for their houses, and yet we saw no record of unauthorized entry."

There were just too many mysterious variables for Carter to deal with all at once. He shook his head and hopped into the car. "Let's go back into town and see if any other folks are missing things," he proposed.

The first stop downtown was Cafe Diem. A harried-looking Vincent met them just inside the door.

"Oh! Sheriff, thank goodness you're here," he cried, "I was just about to call you; it's a catastrophe!"

"What's up, Vince?" Carter asked.

The tubby chef beckoned him closer. "Someone," he whispered conspiratorially, "has been stealing food from my refrigerator."

Carter started, "Stealing? I thought it was infinite! How could you possibly be missing food?"

Vince frowned, "Sheriff, as incredible as it might seem, though my fridge is nearly infinite, it is not completely infinite, and though I have variety, there is only so much of everything. I keep a complete inventory here on the computer-" Vincent scurried around the counter to his computer and, with a few keystrokes, pulled up a refrigerator inventory, "-and all weekend I've been noticing drastically dropping levels of foods I _know _no one has ordered recently!" he sighed, "The loss is absolutely unaccounted for!"

Carter glanced at the screen, taking note of the foods marked _depleted_: soups, coffee, dinner rolls, wraps- the variation seemed evenly spread. One would think this was just an abnormally busy weekend, from the looks of things, but Carter knew Vince always kept exactly the right amounts as the people of Eureka ate. To be depleted in so many things certainly pointed to thievery.

"Maybe whatever clues we couldn't find in the houses," Jo suggested, "we might find here."

Carter just glanced at her, too puzzled to speak.

In short order, Jo and Carter began their investigation of Vincent's fridge. They steered the cart slowly around the aisles, scanning carefully for any abnormalities. Every so often, they would come across a roll, an apple, or a can of something on the floor, but not much else.

Suddenly, Jo stopped the cart. "Do you hear that?" she asked Carter.

He leaned forward and listened hard. Somewhere in the recesses of the Cafe Diem refrigerator, someone-or something-was smacking its lips.

"Sounds like whoever is responsible for this is still here," he noted to Jo. He powered down the cart and they split up, hoping to catch the intruder from two directions, but on foot so their approach would not be detected.

As he neared the back of the refrigerator, Carter noticed a few other non-food items: a bracelet that had been reported missing by Mrs. Van Bramme, a few small children's toys that doubtless would have surfaced had they continued accepting calls, and even a few chairs up against the shelves. Carter felt the backs of the chairs. The metal ones were freezing cold; the wooden ones were only slightly so. They had been here for a while, but not quite long enough to use up all the heat they absorbed in normal use. Things got thicker in the aisles as he progressed, and Carter knew he was nearing his goal. He heard the rustling of wrappers, and through a gap in the shelves saw Jo approaching from the other side. He timed his steps to approach the miscreant at the same time as his deputy.

Jo whipped around the corner, pistol blazing. "All right! Get your hands were I can see them!" she barked at the corner where the person sat.

Carter raised a hand, "Whoa, Jo! Slow down." They both stared at the stricken young stranger, wrapped in blankets acquired from the various residents of Eureka.

Sitting amid piles of trash and stolen trinkets and blankets was a wide-eyed, pale-faced, blue-lipped young girl.


	3. Chapter 3: The Craniogram

The girl started, staring at Carter and Jo with wide eyes. Carter tried to approach non-threateningly.

"Hi," he said to the girl, "I'm Sheriff Carter. What's your name?" He crept forward slowly, with his hands spread. Jo moved in slightly to his right, behind him.

The girl's eyes darted back and forth, like a scared animal. Carter caught Jo's eye and whispered, "Okay, nice and easy, let's get her out of here."

"Got it," Jo responded, but before either of them made a move, the girl suddenly made a noise and unexpectedly dove through the narrow space between them and disappeared down the aisles of the refrigerator.

Carter stared after her, "Wow!" he gasped. Jo rolled her eyes and took off running after her.

"This way!" she hollered, hearing the running patter of bare feet in the middle of the fridge.

Carter heard it too, and moved to flank the girl. Zig-zagging through the aisles, Carter soon stopped as he realized that not only did he lose track of the girl very quickly, as the footsteps gradually grew fainter, but he soon became very lost himself. Carter stopped moving and scanned the shelves to get his bearings. Suddenly, Jo came tearing around the corner to his left.

"Whoa, whoa!" Carter caught her by the shoulders.

"Where'd she go?" Jo demanded.

Carter paused to ponder the situation. "If she wants to get away from us, the most definite way would be-"

"Back to the door," Jo supplied, "which is-"

Carter looked around; he recognized the foods on the shelves, and tried to remember which way they had approached the shelves, and which way they should turn to reach the entrance. He pointed off to his right. "That way," he said.

A few minutes and a few turns later, Jo stopped. "I hear her!" she whispered.

Sure enough, Carter could make out faint, strange, sing-song noises coming from somewhere ahead of them and off to the left. Carter peeked through the shelves and saw the girl standing in front of the refrigerator door. He waved Jo forward.

"Ready?" he asked her, "Go!"

They darted for the girl, who only noticed them when they emerged from the shelves right behind her. With a shriek, she dove through the door, but Jo was faster. The wiry young deputy took a flying tackle, landing on top of the girl and crashing through the door back into the cafe. The girl struggled madly, but Jo grabbed her wrist and cuffed her.

"You're coming with us, whoever you are," she grunted, pulling the girl to her feet.

"Oh!" Vince cried, running up, "This is the thief?" He scrutinized the girl curiously.

"Apparently," Jo replied briskly, 'Excuse us." She brought the girl over near the counter of the cafe.

"We found her in the back corner of your fridge," Carter explained to Vince, "It looked like she'd been living there for a while."

Vince nodded, "Well, that would make sense, because food started going missing a few days ago. Well, now what, Sheriff?"

Carter shrugged, turning as he said, "I guess we bring her down to the-" He stopped when he saw the empty pair of handcuffs and the ball-point pen on the counter. He glanced out the door and saw the girl just disappearing down the block.

"Dang it!" he muttered, and he and Jo vaulted the counter and took off after her.

Down the block, Henry Deacon was just coming out of the hardware store, when a compact, quivering body crashed into him. He caught the girl and looked into her face.

"Hello, what have we here?"

Just then, Carter and Jo ran up. Henry willingly turned over custody of the girl to Jo, who grabbed her arm like she did not intend to let go.

"Who is this?" Henry asked.

Carter paused to catch his breath. "We have no idea; we caught her living in Vince's refrigerator. We don't know where she came from, or what she's capable of."

Jo snorted, "Besides escaping handcuffs with a ball-point pen!"

Henry raised his eyebrows, "That's impressive. Why don't you bring her down to the medical unit at GD and we'll check her out."

Carter nodded, "All right, we can do that."

In GD, Jo handed the girl a hospital gown. "Put this on," she ordered.

The girl stared at the crisp, folded fabric in her hands. She picked it up by the hem, staring deeply at the stitching and the weave of the fabric. It was as if Jo had given her a new creature to inspect.

Jo sighed, "No, you take your clothes off and put this on," she explained, but the girl kept staring at it. Jo grabbed it out of her hands and the girl let her, almost giving it to the short-tempered deputy with a smile. Jo grabbed the collar of the girl's shirt and pulled, hoping the girl would get the hint that this article of clothing had to be removed. The girl frowned and shrank away from Jo's touch, evidently not understanding. Jo groaned at being given such an impossible task, and held up the gown by the shoulders, showing it to the girl, "See? You have to take your clothes off and put this on instead."

The girl nodded and compliantly held her arms out to the side, waiting for Jo to dress her.

Jo cocked an eyebrow, "You're kidding me, right?"

Carter looked up as Jo entered the exam room, dragging the ignorant but complacent girl behind her.

"Took you long enough," he chided his deputy.

Jo frowned at him, "Don't ask," she warned.

The strange, silent girl stood next to the gurney, gazing around the room with a vacant light in her eye. She started to examine Henry's examination equipment, but he stopped her. Taking her hand, he motioned toward the gurney, "Lay on that; do you understand?"

Carter shook his head, "I'm not even sure if she speaks English, or if she speaks at all."

Henry agreed, "She seems to show all the signs of-"

The girl, evidently grasping Henry's meaning faster than she had understood anything else, immediately hopped up onto the gurney and laid herself out, toes straight up, palms facing up, fingers spread.

Henry stared in puzzled amazement. "The perfect anatomical position," he breathed pensively.

"An atomic _what_?" Carter felt compelled to ask.

"Anatomical position is the most ideal for viewing the different systems of the body, in which they are most clearly seen," Henry explained as he closely watched the mysterious girl, who never flinched, "It is a difficult position to maintain, usually it is only drawn, such as illustrations in textbooks; I've never seen a person even attempt maintaining it."

"She seems to be doing it comfortably enough," Carter remarked as Henry moved forward with the x-ray scanner.

The girl did not so much as blink all the while Henry ran several tests on her. After the initial examination, he brought her down to Sector 4 to perform a craniogram, a physical scan of her brain-waves. The girl stared around at the machine, moving her eyes but not her body, in obvious fascination. Once this was done, Henry pulled the paper from beneath the needle and studied it in amazement. Carter moved to the gurney and picked up the girl's hand, signaling to her that she was finished with the examination. The girl leapt up with alacrity and immediately began wandering around the room, prodding into all sorts of things with the curiosity of a five-year-old. Jo chased after her, to which the girl responded by running and dodging into all sorts of places, forcing Jo to follow her all around the room as Carter discussed the readings with Henry.

"So, Dr. Deacon, how'd she do?" he asked.

Henry shrugged, "Well, by all accounts, your light-fingered guest is otherwise harmless." He furrowed his brow and frowned, "Only-"

The girl's elated screams interrupted their conversation. Carter and Henry looked up to see the girl somehow standing on top of a bank of equipment, while Jo was left on the floor trying to figure out how to get the girl down without having to climb up herself.

"Jo," Carter started, but she waved him off.

"Workin' on it, Sheriff!" she said with some irritation.

Carter turned back to Henry, "What were you saying? Something about the cranny-thing?"

"The craniogram," Henry clarified, "According to the read-out," he shook his head, "it's off the charts. I've never seen such a thing."

Carter moved to get a better look at the long paper, "Off the charts as in it doesn't even register?" He stared uncomprehending at the long, narrow lines sweeping from edge to edge of the paper.

"On the contrary," Henry replied, "by this account her synaptic activity suggests she should be a genius."


	4. Chapter 4: Introductions

As soon as Henry said this, the "genius" girl reappeared near them, and the minute she saw her outfit, she reached behind her head and began undoing the straps on her hospital gown.

"Uhh, Jo?" Carter called, hoping she would intervene before the girl could finish the knots.

Once again, his deputy came through, throwing her arms around the girl and instructing, "Here, come this way."

Carter shook his head, "_That's _a genius, Henry?"

Henry's brow clouded, "I can't figure it out; she ought to be very smart, but all her behavior suggests otherwise. At any rate," he gestured to the girl, who followed Jo out from behind the curtain, now fully dressed, "she's harmless, but homeless."

"Yeah, I just wish there was a medical test you could perform to find out where she came from, and where she was headed. For now, I guess she could sleep back at our house. That way I could have SARAH keep an eye on her while Zoe and I work."

Henry smiled, "Vince hired her back at Cafe Diem?"

Carter chuckled, "The way he sees it, he never fired her when she left!"

"All right, see you later, Jack."

"Thanks, Henry."

Carter turned back to Jo.

"So, is she going into lockup tonight?" The young deputy had an almost hungry light in her eye.

Carter shook his head, "I was actually thinking of bringing her back home, introducing her to Zoe. Maybe the girl will open up more to..." Carter changed the word he was about to say in mid-thought, "...her."

Jo rolled her eyes, "As opposed to the lady in the uniform who's been tackling her all afternoon. I get it," she smiled, placing the girl's hand in Carter's, "Have fun, you two," she patted their hands patronizingly and left.

Carter looked sheepishly at the girl. They stood in awkward silence for a while, then Carter said, "Um, I'm Sheriff Jack Carter, but you can call me Sheriff Jack." He tried to speak slowly and distinctly, using simple words and motioning with his hands, even though the girl gave no indication that she even understood him now. "I will bring you to my home. Come with me." He gave the girl's wrist a gentle tug, motioning in the direction he wanted to go. The girl automatically followed him.

All the way back to SARAH, Jack waited for her to speak, but she never said a word, merely stared out the window, watching everything with a blank expression on her face, but a clearly pensive glint in her eye. Carter got the impression that anything he said would be like talking to himself, so he opted for silence.

When they got home, Carter found the house alive with music, as Zoe had evidently gotten SARAH hooked up to a specialized version of Dance Dance Revolution, with the foot-pads as a holographic projection on the carpet in front of the screen.

"Zoe!" he hollered over the noise. SARAH immediately paused the game, and Zoe turned around.

"Hey, Dad!" she cried happily, "Who's this?" She directed her gaze to the girl dressed in a t-shirt, jeans and flip-flops standing just behind Carter.

Carter rubbed the back of his neck, "We're not really sure; Jo was fielding burglar calls all weekend, evidently, and we followed the trail to Vince's refrigerator, where we found this, our thief."

Zoe smiled in puzzlement, "Well, if she's a thief, why is she here?"

Carter shook his head as SARAH tried to be helpful, "I've compared her DNA to all known databases of living persons, but I cannot find a match. That is strange; if she is a criminal, there should be some record of her."

"Thanks SARAH," Carter muttered, "but I'm pretty sure she's only been stealing for her own survival in Eureka, which means she wouldn't have a criminal record just yet."

"So..." Zoe continued, moving closer to the girl and waving a little, evaluating the girl's friendliness, "Why did you bring her here, Dad?"

Carter shook his head, "Well, she hasn't really talked at all; we're having trouble understanding her; I thought maybe she'd open up more to you. Plus, when we're both working, SARAH can watch her. There aren't many other places besides lockup where that could happen."

Zoe raised her eyebrows at her dad's logic, "Ohh-kay," she said slowly. "So, what, is she, like, mute?"

Carter threw up his hands. "I don't know! Henry says she's supposed to be some sort of genius, but I'm not so sure about that. Here, let's try something."

He pointed the two girls to the table. Zoe sat on the girl's right, and Carter on her left.

Carter first pointed to himself, "Sheriff Carter," he said, slowly and distinctly. "You understand? My name," he pointed again, "Is Sheriff Carter."

The girl blinked at him.

Carter pointed to the girl, "Can you say my name? My name?" He pointed to himself again.

The girl blinked, and then- "Carter," she repeated, exactly in his same tone.

Now it was Carter's turn to blink. "You speak!" he blurted, "Uh, well, yes," he said.

The girl, evidently pleased with herself, turned to Zoe, "Carter?" she asked her.

Jack began to correct her, "No, I am Carter-"

Zoe stopped him, "Wait, Dad, I think she gets it." She took the girl's hand and pointed to herself, "Zoe Carter." She pointed to her father, "Sheriff Jack Carter." Zoe repeated this pantomime a few times, then asked, "Do you understand? Who am I?" She pointed to herself, "You say."

A slow smile-the first one Carter had seen yet-crept across the girl's face, "Zoe!" she chirped.

Zoe smiled, "Yes!" she replied enthusiastically, "Who is he?" She pointed to her dad. It was a different sentence construct, but the girl just might understand her meaning.

"Sheriff Jack!" She understood, all right.

"Yes!" Zoe said again.

Carter was caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment, "That's my girl!" he told Zoe, then asked their strange guest, "What about you? What is your name?"

The girl continued to smile, but did not seem to understand the question.

Zoe attempted a review. She pointed to her dad, "Sheriff Jack," she said, then prompted the girl, "Now you."

"Jack!" the girl cried.

Zoe pointed to herself, "Zoe. Now you."

"Zoe!"

Zoe pointed to the girl, "Now you!" she said.

The girl smiled, "Jack, Zoe!" She pointed to each one in turn.

Carter fought to maintain his composure. Zoe pushed her hair back in mild consternation. "Who are you?" she asked the girl, pointing at the girl in a definitive motion.

The girl smiled again, "You!" she crowed happily.

Carter stood up quickly. "Well, I can't stick around this any longer. I need to meet Jo at Cafe Diem so we can make sure everyone whose stuff she stole gets their belongings back."

"Sheriff Carter," SARAH inserted, "I think I have some information on our new guest that might interest you."

Carter groaned, "What is it, SARAH?" he asked.

"Since I could not find a DNA match in any current database, I searched for a match in any known database, living and deceased."

"Deceased? Why would you need to search for a deceased person?" Carter wondered, briefly checking his watch, "Hurry this up, SARAH, I need to get to work!"

"Sheriff, I was able to match the DNA to a deceased person."

"Do you mean to tell me that the girl we have staying at our house supposedly matches a dead person?" Carter asked incredulously.

"That is correct, Sheriff," SARAH replied.

The girl looked up, catching the last phrase from SARAH. She laughed, "That is correct!" she echoed.

Carter shook his head, "I don't have time for this, I have to go. Zoe?" he paused on his way out the door, "Watch her for me, please. See if you can get her to talk any more."

"Okay, Dad," Zoe called.

"Goodbye, Sheriff," SARAH said.

"Goodbye, Sheriff!" the girl repeated.


	5. Chapter 5: Wonder Kid

The Sheriff's office was a madhouse when Carter first arrived, since Jo and Vince had transferred everything from Vince's refrigerator to there while waiting for him, but it only took a few hours to find everyone's stuff, and just in time for dinner, Carter was handing out the last set of blankets.

"And that's the end!" Jo sighed, sinking onto her desk with a groan.

"No more weird stuff for me!" Carter stated, "I've about had my fill for the week."

"Aw, don't say that," Jo teased, "You're sheriff of Eureka; you of all people should know this is only business as usual." She chuckled, "Found out any more about that girl yet?"

Carter shrugged, "Well, she talks."

Jo's eyebrows shot up, "Does she now? What did she say?"

"Well, we-Zoe and I-taught her to say Sheriff Jack, and Zoe, and from SARAH she apparently picked up the phrases That is correct and Goodbye, Sheriff." He sighed, "Henry says her intelligence is supposedly off the charts, but I'm not seeing it at all."

"Well," Jo offered, "maybe it's there, you just don't know where to look."

Just then, Carter's cellphone rang. It was Zoe.

"Dad, you have _got _to see this!" she blurted out.

"What happened, did the girl give you her name?"

"No, not yet. She's beyond expert at DDR, and she keeps singing this weird song, but she hasn't said much besides asking SARAH's name. She's watching TV right now, and you won't believe-you've just got to see it! Are you done at the office yet?"

"Yeah, Jo and I are finished. I was just about to head home anyway. See you in a bit!"

"Okay, bye!"

Carter turned to his deputy. "Well, I guess I'll head home now. Zoe says there's something I have to see."

"All right," Jo chirped, "see you tomorrow... unless something happens tonight."

Carter rolled his eyes, "I certainly hope not!"

Twenty minutes later, Carter pulled up in front of the bunker and entered the smart-house.

He heard a bunch of noise coming from the TV, and saw the girl, sitting mesmerized on the couch, surrounded by papers covered in countless algorithms and formulae.

Zoe met him behind the couch. "What's all this?" he asked his daughter. He looked up at the TV. Sixteen screens blinked, flashed, and changed at different times. Sixteen different channels played, some of them game shows, some of them news stations, some of them even in foreign languages. The girl periodically peeled her eyes away only to write down some piece of information on a piece of paper. When the paper was filled, she discarded it for a fresh one. Carter picked up one of the papers.

"Jee-huay's cancer caused by work-related stress and over-exertion, solution x equals forty-three-f over pi to the sixth power minus six?" he read. "Tidal wave in Indonesia caused by plato-tectonic shift near Madagascar? Alex must win first place, Angela must win second, Melissa must place third, and Josh will be eliminated."

He looked up at the screens. One of the game shows was just finishing its final round. The host announced the winner, and the contestant named Alex cheered like he had just won. Angela and Melissa smiled and waved as the runners-up, and Josh left the screen with defeat on his face.

"How is she doing this?" he asked, "Is that-is one of the channels in Chinese?"

Zoe nodded, "Yeah, she's got channels in Chinese, Japanese, two in Spanish, one German, and one French station. She wrote that one about halfway through the show. At the beginning, she just recorded the percentage probability of each contestant, and she's called each elimination on all the game shows. See Wheel of Fortune going on over there? She seemed to know by their _letters guessed _which one would win the prize!" Zoe shook her head, "She's a phenomenal dancer, too. She found a setting that projected holographic targets for the hands as well as the feet on DDR, and she nailed the moves every single time."

Amid the cacophony of television noise, Carter heard a strange melody coming from somewhere. "Is she singing now?" he asked Zoe.

Zoe nodded, "She'll do that from time to time. I have no idea where the song came from; I've never heard it before."

Carter shook his head, "Every minute, another mystery. I shoulda known."

"Would you care for some dinner, Sheriff?" SARAH offered politely.

"Sure, SARAH. What is it?" Carter asked.

"I have pulled pork in the oven and sesame seed buns in the toaster," the smart-house informed its owner, "Bon appetit!"

Zoe and Carter took their seats at the counter as a delicious smell pervaded the room. Instantly, the noise of the television stopped.

"Well I'll get the food," Carter said, turning to hop off the stool and get their dinner. He flinched and covered his face, "Holy crap!" he cried.

The girl stood right at his elbow, staring at him. "Bon appetit!" she told him.

Carter nodded, offering her his stool, "Yeah, sure, go ahead. SARAH, can you get us another plate?"

"Of course, Sheriff," SARAH responded.

After dinner, Carter set up a bed on the couch for the girl. She sat on it, watching him with wide, innocent eyes. Carter sat next to her.

"Are you sure you can't tell me what your name is?" he asked her gently.

She smiled sadly, toying with the blanket, "Name..." she repeated pensively. She began humming her haunting melody again.

Carter shook his head, "Well, I'll leave you to your lullaby," he said, "Good night."

"Good night, Sheriff Jack," the girl replied.

The girl was still sound asleep when Zoe and Carter awoke the next morning. Carter noticed that his daughter was dressed already.

"Are you working today?" he asked her.

"Yep," she said. They both glanced toward their guest. "What are you going to do about her?"

Carter thought for a moment. "Well, I want her kept out of the way. SARAH can keep an eye on her, can't you, SARAH?"

"Of course, Sheriff," SARAH agreed.

"Okay, that will work," Carter nodded. He and Zoe grabbed their jackets. "Can I drive you into town?" he offered Zoe.

She smiled, "Can I drive _you _into town?"

Carter smiled, "All right; just drive carefully."

Zoe rolled her eyes, "My dad's the sheriff, of course I'm careful!"

They left the house laughing. The girl still hadn't stirred.


	6. Chapter 6: JANIA

Carter was just beginning that morning's paperwork when Jo strode into the office and slapped a paper in front of his face.

Carter just stared at it. The entire paper was covered in an ornate sketch: vines, birds, and flowers surrounding the name JANIA. "What's this?" he asked her.

"Zane found it slipped under his bedroom door this morning." She said.

Carter noticed a dusting of powder on the back. "What's this? You dusted it for prints?"

Jo raised her hands, "What? If someone is stalking Zane, I want to find out who it is!"

Carter chuckled, "And did you?"

Jo smirked wryly, "No; whoever it is, she's got no record."

Carter studied the paper again. "So, what's Jania?"

Jo began typing furiously at the computer, "From the looks of the drawing, I think maybe we might be asking _who _is Jania?" She typed the question into the search engine. Instantly, a hit popped up. "The Eureka Gazette?"

Carter moved over, "I thought the paper was called the Reporter," he queried.

"The Gazette is an old paper," Jo explained, "it was discontinued about five years before you came." She clicked on the link. "Hm."

Carter read the screen over her shoulder, "What's this?"

"It's an old article about a GD project of some kind. It's called Project JUPITER, and they list Jania as the test subject."

"What were they testing?" Carter asked.

Jo searched "Project JUPITER" and came up with another article, also in the Gazette. "Here's another one..." she scanned through it, "but all this says is that Project JUPITER is officially shelved, and the test subject has been relocated."

"So that's _all _you can find on this Jupiter Project?" Carter asked incredulously, "Just it's beginning and its end? None of the subject matter or anything?"

Jo shrugged, "It's a GD project; either you worked on the project, and you knew what the newspapers weren't saying, or you didn't, and you knew why your partner or your neighbor was suddenly very busy or not talking to you, and when they would be done ignoring and avoiding you." She looked at the paper again, "So if Jania's trying to send a message, why send it to Zane? What would they be testing, and what connection does he have to it?"

Carter rubbed the back of his neck again; he would probably rub all the hair there away by the time they got all these mysteries straightened out. "Well, I guess the surest way to find answers to our questions is to go right to the source."

Jo looked up, cocking an eyebrow, "Asking the girl?"

"Nope!" Carter responded, picking up the keys to his Jeep, "We're going to GD."

Douglas Fargo surveyed his desk with pleasure. It felt good to have an impeccable desk. He felt very much in control, even though technically he wasn't. Not having any pressing projects on his desk right now, he absently swung the ball of his Newton's cradle and watched it click back and forth. The sight and sound was very therapeutic; Fargo had no idea he was nodding off until the sound suddenly stopped. He jerked up straight in his chair. Carter and Jo stood behind his desk.

"Fargo," Carter greeted him, "we need a favor."

Fargo instantly shook his head, "No way! Oh no!" he raised his hands defensively, "No offense, Sheriff, but every time you ask me for a favor I end up in trouble!"

"That's not the fault of the favor," Jo began to protest, but Carter interrupted.

"You won't get into trouble this time, Fargo," he reassured the nervous young man, "Just let us know how much information you have on a Project JUPITER."

"Project Jupiter?" Fargo repeated, utterly befusticated.

"Yeah, _now_ would be nice," Jo urged him.

Fargo jumped into action, typing furiously on his computer, "Okay, uh... Let's see, Project Jupiter-"

"Just let us into the records room, and we can find it ourselves," Carter offered, but Fargo shook his head.

"Not going to do that, Sheriff! I can access the database of all GD's projects. All I need to do is search for it..." He hit the "enter" key and waited for the information to load.

"Excuse me, who's responsible for searching _Project Jupiter_ in the database?"

Carter and Jo whirled around, and Fargo jumped away from his computer guiltily. Dr. Allison Blake stood in the doorway of Fargo's office.

"Hi, Allison!" Carter tried to greet her casually. "Fargo was just-"

"Dr. Blake!" Fargo squeaked, "Um, this whole situation is entirely not my fault. Let me explain: you see, Sheriff Carter asked me to-" Fargo endeavored to shift the blame back on the truly guilty party.

Allison raised her hand, "Fargo, shut up!" she turned to Carter. "What's this about, Jack?"

Carter sighed, "Sorry to bother you, Allison, it's just that..." he pulled out the paper Jo had shown him, "Jo says that Zane found this slipped under his bedroom door this morning. We tried searching for Jania and came up with only a few mentions about Project Jupiter. Supposedly Jania was the test subject. We just wanted to find out more about it, maybe it would give us a clue as to who left it there."

"And if there's some sort of hidden meaning," Jo added.

Allison took the paper and scrutinized it, "I'd heard of Project Jupiter before, but it was mostly kept under wraps because of the nature of the project."

"What was the nature?" Carter asked.

Allison shrugged, "The project was started and finished when I was still a student intern, I was never authorized to know anything about it." She handed the paper back to Jo. "Luckily, I do now. Come on, I'll help you find what you're looking for."

Allison turned back to the door, and Carter almost turned, but suddenly Jo gasped.

"Trouble," she murmured to Carter, staring out the window into the rotunda.

Carter followed her gaze. Standing at the very center of the rotunda, amid scientists bustling back and forth, with a fascinated expression on her face, was the mystery girl!

Allison came back to see what everyone was looking at. "What on earth-" she gasped, "Who is that girl? How did she get in here?"

Carter dialed SARAH. "SARAH," he reprimanded the smart-house, "Why is our guest standing in the middle of GD's lobby right now? Didn't I tell you not to let her out?"

"I'm sorry, Sheriff," even for a computerized voice, SARAH sounded genuinely shocked, "I have no record that she even left. I was monitoring her the whole time, I have no idea how this happened."

Carter closed the phone, "Great," he muttered.

"I'm calling security," Allison declared as she ran out of Fargo's office. Carter and Jo followed her to the lobby.

When they arrived at the rotunda, Carter saw the security guards pouring in, but where was the girl?

"Dangit!" Allison snapped, "Where did she go?" she pulled out her walkie-talkie and set it on the PA frequency. "Attention all GD employees," she announced, "there is an unauthorized intruder in this building. She is a young woman about mid-twenties, dark-blonde hair, about five and a half feet tall, wearing a blue t-shirt, faded jeans and white flip-"

Allison's cellphone rang. She picked it up, "Hello?"

"She's here," Zane said.

In Zane's office, he spoke to Allison, "She's in my office right now."

"What is she doing?"

Zane stared at the girl; he hadn't taken his eyes off of her since he first saw her just before Allison made the announcement. "She's... she's just looking at me."

"All right, we're coming."

Zane hung up the phone and sighed. Whoever this girl was, she cowered behind his desk as if more afraid of anyone else who would come through the door than of him. She stared at him trustfully, but Zane had no idea why.


	7. Chapter 7: Zane's New Assignment

Security guards advanced into Zane's office with Allison, Carter, and Jo following close behind. The effect on the girl was electrifying. Immediately she leapt behind Zane's chair and threw her arms around him, cowering and evidently expecting him to protect her.

Carter stepped forward, surmising that a familiar face might help them in getting the girl out of the office.

"Hey," he said gently, "remember me? It's Sheriff Jack; will you come with me?"

"No!" she shrieked, shaking her head emphatically and shifting away from Carter's hand. "Zane is here, Sheriff Jack; location confirmed. It is correct."

"It is correct?" Allison echoed, turning to Carter.

He shrugged, "A phrase she picked up from SARAH. Zane, why is she looking for you?"

Zane would have thrown up his hands, but the girl effectually pinned them down, so he merely shook his head. "I have no idea! I've never seen her before! Where did she even come from?"

"How did she know his name?" Allison asked.

Jo turned to the girl, "Who is Zane?" she asked.

The girl looked at Zane and giggled, "Baby brother Zanie!"

"What?" everyone gasped, including Zane himself. "You're kidding me," he exclaimed, "I have a sister?"

"An older sister, apparently," Jo noted wryly.

"Wait a minute," Zane realized. He looked at the girl, "Jania?" He guessed.

The girl-whose name was evidently Jania-finally released Zane and crouched on the floor at his feet. "Jania is with Zane," she stated firmly.

"I would agree," Allison decided with raised eyebrows, "Zane, you're in charge of the... of Jania for now."

"What?" He protested, "Dr. Blake, I can't babysit somebody, I have work to do!"

"This _somebody _happens to be your sister," Allison reminded him, "and she won't cooperate with anyone else. She's attached to you, so we'll just attach you to her."

Zane rolled his eyes, "Thanks a lot!"

Jo smirked, "Hey, you know, Henry says she's a genius, maybe she could help you."

Zane shook his head, "Not likely," he concluded as everyone filed out the door.

In mild irritation, Zane returned to his desk and began reviewing data.

Jania danced a circle around the room, humming some strange melody to herself. Zane heard the _clink_ of metal, and when he looked up, Jania was fiddling with some unfinished projects that he'd always kept piled in the corner for the off-chance he had some down time. Now some addle-pated outsider was treating it like another sandbox toy! This was the _last _thing Zane needed right now!

"Hey!" He snapped at her, "Don't touch that!" He grabbed it from her, "You're going to-" he stopped and blinked, "-fix...it." This was a device that had been particularly challenging to him, and she had just repaired the circuit board and readjusted the calibration. The mechanism worked perfectly.

Jania smiled, laughed, and danced away, singing that same strange song:

"_Eetissapac lah-eenairk tayrellesca_

_Nushaytilibaheer spanniss_

_Zdwortkelleh tnem' gah_

_Dowk nushayvitka eethe."_

Zane shook his head; would he ever figure this out? He dialed Allison's number.

"Hello?"

"Allison, I can't handle this!" Zane exploded. "She's weirding me out!"

"I'm with you there, Zane," Allison laughed lightly, "but the truth is, we need you to do some recon work with Jania."

Zane froze, "What sort of recon?"

"Carter and Jo found something connecting Jania with a Project JUPITER. Now, I couldn't find much, since it's a long-since-discontinued project, but I was hoping maybe you would be able to find out more about it from her. She'll talk to you."

"Yeah, because supposedly she's my long-lost older sister!" Zane shot back, and ended the call.

He returned to Jania, who seemed to have an obsession with fixing every mechanism in the pile, humming to herself and completely ignoring him.

"Hey, Jania," he began, but she didn't look up. Zane decided to ask anyway, "Tell me about Project Jupiter." He pronounced it slowly and distinctly, as if the syllables themselves would trigger some sort of revelation in her overdrawn mind.

Jania stopped fiddling with the mechanism as she immediately said, "The planet Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, with a mass of more than two and a half times the other planets combined."

Zane prompted her further, "What about _Project _Jupiter?"

"Jupiter is a gas giant, its mass primarily composed of hydrogen and helium. It is the fifth planet from the sun."

Zane leaned in and gently removed the object from Jania's hands. She still did not look at him, but stared absently in the distance. "Jania, I want to know more about Project Jupiter," he repeated, doing his best not to get irritated.

"Jupiter, also called Jove, was king of the gods in Roman and Greek mythology. His female consort was Juno."

"Do you remember Project Jupiter?"

"The ancient Romans held the belief that each object, location and function, no matter how small, all had their own spirits, called _geniuses._ These geniuses were grouped into family units, the masculine unit being named after Jupiter and the feminine named after Juno. It emphasized the divine nature of everything in the world, and especially the innate divinity bestowed upon each object, location, and individual."

Zane stood up, thoroughly frustrated. "Forget it," he muttered.

Jania finally looked at him. She stared, unmoving, for a very long while; then she stated, "Jania does not forget," and returned to repairing the device in her hands.

Zane shook his head and returned to his computer work. This was going to be a strange week, he could tell already.


	8. Chapter 8: Project JUPITER

By lunchtime, Zane desperately wanted to own up to the fact that he had completely run out of patience. He glanced over at Jania, who seemed content, now that he didn't much care where she went, to sit in the corner and stare at him.

This had been her occupation all day, and it kept Zane occupied as well. He felt as though maybe Jania was super-brilliant, particularly in the way she could almost sense the times he did and did not want her there, for the express purpose of doing the opposite of his desires. If he stood in one place discussing a matter for too long, and in the course of the conversation make a point to ignore Jania, she always disappeared. Zane could not fathom why he always managed to find her, almost as if she would intentionally wander away to obvious places where he would look. She followed him for the most part, but quite frequently Zane would glance around and Jania would not be there. Instead, she seemed to prefer finding something for her busy hands to meddle with. It took a bit for Zane to realize that Jania never really destroyed anything she touched, like he constantly worried she would. Even if she took a tangled mass of wires and made them into a single, braided cord, it may not have been what the scientist with the wires intended, but it was better than a knotted wreck. All the time while Jania fiddled, she sang that same weird song. Zane wondered absently what language it was.

"You know," he remarked aloud to Jania, though he never assumed she actually heard or listened to him, "you're an odd duck," he told her.

Jania suddenly looked up at him, blinking her sparkling brown eyes as she chuckled softly. "Zane is incorrect," she stated blankly, rolling her head almost coyly, "Jania is not a duck." She stood up and moved closer to him, sitting the empty chair next to his desk.

Zane sensed that she would be more open to giving information at this time, so he decided to hazard it. "What is Jania?" he asked her.

"Jania is a female," she answered.

Zane prompted her further, speaking to her in the third person, because this method seemed to work better for communicating, "Does Jania know about Project Jupiter?"

Jania blinked, and quite unexpectedly stated, "Jania _is _Project Jupiter."

Zane inhaled sharply. "Can you tell me about Project Jupiter?" he said slowly, forgetting the third person in his excitement.

Jania looked away, but she was not as vague this time around. "Jania does not recognize this question," she informed Zane, "Zane should ask Them instead."

Zane pursued this, everything within him tingling in excitement, "Who are They?"

The young physicist noticed that Jania, when speaking of Them, would not show him her face. "They are the ones who made Jania," she answered, "They watched Jania and taught Jania and They went away when Jania completed the education." She suddenly turned and fixed her wide, vacant eyes on Zane. "Are They here, Zane? Will They come?"

Zane shrugged; "They" might refer to the scientists in charge of Project Jupiter. He wondered how they could abandon Jania like this, after monitoring and testing (the "watching" and "teaching") her for so long. At this point, though, he couldn't say how many people were involved in the project, nor if any were still alive.

"I don't know, Jania," he answered truthfully.

He saw fear in the girl's eyes, much like her expression had been when she watched the door from behind his desk when he first saw her. "They will not come now," she nearly begged, "since Jania is with Zane, They will not come to take Jania...Is this correct?"

She had slipped her hand into his. Zane covered it with his other hand. Looking straight into her clear, brown eyes, Zane promised, "No, Jania. They will not take you." He fought a smile as he repeated her words emphatically, "Location confirmed. Jania is with Zane."

Back in Henry's lab, he and Allison mulled over file after file of canceled or abandoned GD projects. Many of them were filed under alternate names (being extremely sensitive subject material), or under a completely different filing system, one the Global Dynamics scientists used in the early days, before the new computerized database.

"I realize it is going to take forever to finally get all these projects uploaded to the database according to the new filing specs," Allison said, slowly scrolling through every possible project file, "but it almost feels like we'll be here till that happens!"

"Keep looking," Henry encouraged her, "a project of this magnitude can't be hard to find."

Allison stopped and looked sideways at the engineer, "There you go again, talking like you know something you're not telling me. Would you mind sharing with me here what you found out about Jania in that physical exam?"

Henry shook his head, strangely pensive, as if stuck pondering some deep conundrum. "The craniogram was far and above anything I ever thought possible. Based on this alone, I think if we had her in a room and could administer an IQ test, she just might ace it. But at the same time, she behaves-"

"Like a child who has been locked away most of her life," Allison supplied, "Yeah, I've been wondering about that, too." She turned back to the monitor and scanned a few more screens as Henry frowned and observed, "It's like she's so smart, she's stupid."

"Okay, here's something," Allison said, opening a folder labeled, "P. JUPITER." Inside were several screens of data, such as charts, records, and lab reports. The reports made reference to some sort of "test subject", and described the various experiments and tests run on the subject: "Subject performed as expected in directional and physical trials. Subject performed beyond expectation in academic examinations. Subject remains below average in social interaction and interpersonal relations. Subject performed above average in retention and memory evaluations."

"Well, it definitely sounds like our girl," Henry remarked.

Allison closed that particular window and opened the file marked "Personnel." "Ah-ha, pay dirt," she told Henry, "We can run these names through GD's database and see if any of these men and women are still working anywhere."

"Or still living," Henry muttered wryly.

There being only ten names on the list, it did not take long to enter them all. Out of ten scientist on a top-secret project from twenty years previously, not one of them remained in the GD database.

"Well, that's about all we can do, then," Allison sighed in exasperation.

Henry stared at the list, stroking his chin. He clicked around several other forms, and read from the report Allison had found, "Subject performed above average in retention." He looked at Allison, "Sounds like we have better than a database, Dr. Blake," he winked and printed out the personnel list, "we have a girl who doesn't forget things."


	9. Chapter 9: Examination and Revelation

Whatever breakthroughs Zane had accomplished with Jania seemed to disappear as soon as he tried to resume his normal work. He did his best not to let it get to him. At first, he would staunchly chase her down every time she disappeared, but after a while, he decided it was not worth his while to waste that much time. Once he had decided this, however, he noticed that she consistently appeared again at the most inopportune moments.

He would be discussing proper emulsion techniques with Dr. Strong for a very important, time-sensitive project; the next instant, he would look up and Jania was across the lab, messing with something while a technician's back was turned. Zane tried to stop her as often as he could, and over and over he tried to make it abundantly clear that she was not supposed to be doing those things, but all Jania would ever say was, "Jania is correct." She believed she was right, and when Zane had to own up to the fact that anything Jania did never really threatened any lives, not even her own, he stopped catching and correcting her.

When they returned to his office, Zane found Allison and Henry waiting for them.

"Zane, we found some names associated with Project Jupiter," Allison explained, "and we wanted to find out if maybe the mention of the names and some of the details would get her to talk about the project."

When Zane nodded, Henry assumed the part of a scientist and laid a difficult physics exam on the desk in front of Jania.

"Complete the examination," he ordered, "You have thirty minutes. You may begin...now."

Automatically, Jania picked up the pencil and began filling out the blanks on the paper. Twenty minutes later, she laid the pencil down and waited quietly for Henry to call, "Time." Henry the Professor picked up the paper and said, "Excellent." He showed the exam to Zane.

Zane smirked and raised his eyebrows at the older doctor. "Perfect?"

Henry was so shocked he was almost laughing, "Perfect," he told Zane.

For the next test, he laid before Jania a piece of paper with a string of twenty numbers on it.

"Memorize this sequence," he told her. "You have ten seconds."

For ten seconds, Jania stared at those numbers. When the time was done, Henry removed the first paper and laid down a fresh sheet.

"Reproduce the number sequence," he said.

Jania did so, without missing a digit.

Finally, Henry brought out a box of wires, switches, circuit boards, and some metal casing scraps. "Repair the mechanism," he instructed Jania, but Zane wondered if these random pieces had ever been a mechanism in the first place.

Jania did not question her instructions, but dutifully began piecing the "mechanism" back together. After a few minutes of fiddling, she began to sing her song.

"_Eetissapac lah-eenairk tayrellesca_

_ Nushaytilibaheer spanniss_

_ Zdwortkelleh tnem' gah_

_ Dowk nushayvitka eethe."_

It was the first time Henry had ever heard it. He moved closer to Jania. "Jania, what is the song?"

Jania immediately stopped singing and looked worried, but she continued to connect wires to the circuit board and the switches. She even figured out how the pieces of casing would go together, creating an entirely new mechanism all on her own. By now, however, Henry was far more interested in the song than in testing her any further. He gently removed the mechanism from her hands and asked again, "Does Jania know what the song means?"

With a shriek Jania suddenly dove away from Henry and threw her arms around Zane.

"NO!" She screamed, "Jania does not recognize the query! The man must not give Jania the words!"

"Jania," Zane cried in surprise, "what are you doing?"

Jania removed her arms from him and shrank away, curling into the fetal position on the floor and avoiding eye contact. "Jania's answer will be incorrect," she mumbled, "and They will come and take Jania back." She looked back at Zane with pleading eyes, "Jania must be correct! Zane will help Jania! Zane does not want Them to take Jania away!"

Henry tried to approach her again, but he had lost all credibility with Jania. He was now one of Them, looking for an excuse to bring her back to the place she did not want to return to.

Allison took over, moving to try to comfort the mortified girl. "They're not going to take you, Jania," she spoke soothingly. "They are not here; we just want to know, do you remember Them?"

Jania blinked at her, "Jania never forgets," she stated flatly.

Allison began pulling out pictures of the scientists and laying them on the table. She pointed to each of them, confirming their names with Jania.

"Do you remember Dr. Chase?"

Jania smiled, "Yes!" she gurgled.

"Do you remember Dr. Avello?"

The smile on Jania's face faltered, "Yes," she answered, in a slightly subdued tone.

"This is Dr. Rothman, do you remember him?"

Jania's expression warmed again, "Yes," she responded.

Allison continued, "What about Dr. Forrest?"

Fear flashed in Jania's eyes, and she only glanced at the photo, "Yes," she replied shortly.

"Do you remember Dr. Marshall?"

Again, only a flicker of the eyes, "Yes."

As Allison asked about the next four doctors, a change seemed to come over Jania. No longer was she the happy, carefree, bubbly, little-girl-lost they had gotten used to ignoring. She seemed genuinely terrified of these people. Only one more scientist-the ninth-warranted a relieved reaction from Jania. Most dramatic of all was the final photo Allison laid down.

"Jania, do you remember-"

"Go away!" Jania shrieked. "Do not let him come here! It is Master!" She immediately ran to Zane and cowered at his feet with her arms over her head.

"Zane must keep Jania safe from Master," she whimpered softly. "Master must not touch Jania any more."

"Who is it?" Zane asked Allison, bewildered at the girl's reaction.

Allison picked up the photo and looked at the man. "The roster says he is Dr. George Masterson, the head of this project." She looked at the quivering young woman, "Whatever he did, chances are Jania didn't like it."

"Master does not see," Jania whispered, eyes flashing as she overcame her fear in telling these people about this man who caused her so much pain, "Master cannot see correctness in people. Everything Master sees is incorrect, and Master always wants to make it correct, to force it to be correct." She shook her head violently, "But everything Master makes correct is not correct anymore, it is more incorrect." Tears sprang to her eyes and she crossed her arms in front of herself, as if protecting her body from further harm, "Master tried to make Jania correct, but Jania was always incorrect to Master, no matter what Jania did." She turned once again to Zane, "Please, Zane must _not _let Master get Jania!" She begged emphatically, "Jania is with Zane; Jania cannot go with Master. Location confirmed; is that correct, Zane?"

Zane bit his lip and swallowed hard, "It is correct, Jania," he answered.

"Zane," Allison said, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Zane drew away from Jania, who merely resumed humming her song and fiddling with her newly-constructed device.

"What's up?" he asked Allison.

She held up the folder with the photos of the scientists and reached in to reveal one more photo that she hadn't shown Jania. "When I found the photos of all the personnel involved in Project Jupiter, I also found this." She pulled out the photo and handed it to Zane.

His jaw dropped, "My _parents_?" he spluttered incredulously.

"Were they scientists, Zane? What was their specialized field?"

Zane shook his head, running his hand through his hair, "I have no idea! I mean, they lived in Eureka before I was born, didn't they? Growing up, I guess they were gone a lot, and I always thought they were smart; they always seemed to be thinking about a lot of stuff. I ran away when I was twelve-"

"-To become a particle physicist and the world's fastest computer hacker, I know," Allison finished, "but is it possible that your parents had a direct connection with the project, and _that's _why Jania thinks she's your sister? According to the medical records Dr. Masterson consulted with them quite frequently."

"Did you find any sort of contextual pattern?" Zane asked.

Allison shook her head, "The consultations ranged across the board; the strangest thing about it is that their involvement rarely goes very deep into any particular field at all. Whatever field your parents worked in, they were very closely involved and I dare say responsible for the test subject in this project, which would be Jania."

Zane rubbed his chin, "I'm afraid I can't help you there, Dr. Blake." He returned to his desk, and Henry left with Allison.

That evening, Zane brought Jania back to his house. He gave her a blanket and pillow and helped her settle on the couch in the den.

"If you're going to sleep here," he warned her, "no funny business! Don't even think about sneaking out during the night, or I'll lock you away in a place you'll never get out of, even with all your smarts. See, I'm smart, too, I know how to do that."

Jania smiled at him as if she understood none of what he just said, "Location confirmed," she crowed. Zane shook his head.

"Good night, Jania," he said quietly.

"Good night, Zanie!" she called back.


	10. Chapter 10: The Jania Effect

Early the next morning, Zane's alarm blared as it always did. He inhaled deeply through his nose as he rubbed his face-

And caught a delicious whiff.

Zane sat up quickly, blinking furiously. Hanging on his bedroom door at the foot of his bed was a fresh outfit: jeans, collared shirt, and a tie. He clearly smelled and now heard sizzling bacon and fresh-brewed coffee. Only then did he remember the guest in his house. Zane hurriedly tossed on the clothes, but skipped the tie. He stuffed that in his pocket as he bolted down the stairs. He never wore a tie to work, and everyone knew it. For that matter, he rarely wore a collar to work; he figured Jania had selected the outfit for him, so there was little harm in humoring her just a bit. Full of curiosity, he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen.

Jania had breakfast laid out as perfect as a catalog picture on the table; the only difference was the breakfast was exactly what Zane liked: scrambled eggs with chives and grated cheese, cooked just enough but not too much, crispy bacon, a waffle with every square containing a dot of maple syrup, a perfectly square pat of butter in the exact center, and a strawberry carved with mathematical precision atop the butter pat, and a cup of orange juice. She was just pouring him the cup of coffee.

Zane honestly didn't mind expressing his surprise and appreciation. "Wow, Jania," he remarked, "this is amazing!"

She looked up to smile at him, but it disappeared at once when she saw something. She folded her arms and frowned at Zane.

"It is incorrect," she informed him.

Zane chuckled as he dug into the food, "You actually sounded disappointed there for a minute. I never thought you could."

"Zane!" Jania grabbed his hand, stopping the piece of bacon he held from reaching his mouth. "It is incorrect!" she repeated.

Zane put down the bacon, "What is incorrect?" he asked Jania.

She only reached into his pocket and pulled out the tie.

Zane laughed and shook his head, "Oh, no you don't! I'm not the kind of guy who wears a tie to work, Jania. We can skip the tie; see?" He held up his collar, "I'm wearing the shirt, I don't need the tie." He resumed eating and tried to change the subject. "Are you going to eat?" _If you eat at all, _he thought.

Jania refilled his juice and cleared the empty dishes. "Jania has already consumed nourishment."

Zane finished his breakfast and stood.

"If Zane maintains an average speed of 35 miles per hour," Jania interjected, "estimated time of departure must be t-minus 5 minutes, to arrive at Global Dynamics research facility at eight o'clock A.M."

"Great," Zane replied, "looks like I'm ready already." He moved toward the door. "Come on, Jania-"

"Zane!" She stopped and would not move.

Zane popped his head back in the door, "What?"

"It is incorrect!"

Zane rolled his eyes, "There you go about the tie again. Jania, I don't need it, I don't want it."

She pulled it out of her own pocket and moved toward him. "It is correct, Zane," she said, almost like a reprimand.

"Jania, just leave it."

"Jania must correct it."

She had the tie around his neck now, and began to tie it, even as Zane tried to pull it off.

"No, Jania, stop-"

"It is incorrect."

"Stop it, Jania, get your-"

"It is incorrect."

Finally, Zane wrested the tie out of Jania's hands, "Ok, I get it! Fine! Get your hands off. I'll _do _it!" he tied the tie properly around his neck. "There, are you happy?"

Jania smiled, satisfied, "It is correct," she sighed.

Zane grabbed her hand and dragged her out the car, "Come on."

Zane pulled into the parking lot of Global Dynamics just before eight o'clock.

Fargo met him as soon as he set foot inside the doors.

"Still dragging around the little Miss Fiddle-fingers, eh?" he growled savagely, "What's she going to screw up this time?"

"Screw up?" Zane demanded, "What are you talking about?"

"My Newton's cradle!" Fargo exploded, producing the article in question. "Harmless, right? Therapeutic? Darn straight! Well, all that changed after _she-" _he jabbed a finger at Jania, "-snuck into my office and messed with it! Watch!"

He set the cradle on the table next to them. Fargo picked up the ball at the end and let it go, jumping back and cringing as he did so. Zane almost had the urge to follow suit when the colliding balls unexpectedly produced sparks! Flecks of light shot off in every direction, with an accompanying _pop_ amplifying the usual _tick-tick-tick _of the cradle.

"I started it on my desk this morning," Fargo complained, "and _boom_, two stacks of reports up in flames! I was lucky I could get close enough to stop it!"

"Great! Can you stop it now?" Zane asked him.

Fargo stood, still indignant. "Fine!" He stalked over to the table and stilled the cradle.

"Fargo, I really don't think Jania did this," Zane said, shaking his head and looking from the cradle to Jania, standing just behind him a very picture of fear. "So unless you have proof, I don't-"

"She's the only one who could!" Fargo stipulated.

"Oh come on, Fargo! I really-"

"Zane!" Dr. Allison Blake called to him as she approached, evidently in a hurry, evidently concerned about something. "Do you have a minute?"

Zane, still miffed about his run-in with Fargo, growled, "Fine."

For the first time, Allison noticed his outfit. She smirked, "Nice tie."

Zane rolled his eyes, "Jania insisted that it was 'correct.'"

Allison's eyebrows raised in surprise, "Jania picked that out?"

Now it was Zane's turn to smirk superiorly, "Yeah; she made me breakfast, too."

Allison was duly impressed, "Wow, I didn't think she would come out and do something like that."

Zane bobbed his head, "Yeah, It's almost like having a smart-house, only... not."

Just then, Carter approached the pair. Zane muttered, "Speaking of having a smart-house..."

Carter was breathing heavily like he had covered a wide area already that morning. "Hi Zane, nice tie," he said.

Zane nodded, and Carter turned to Allison, "So, did you tell him yet?"

Zane frowned, "Tell me what?"

Allison bit her lip and chose her words carefully, "Zane, did Jania ever...fiddle with anything in your office?"

Zane recalled Fargo's Newton cradle. "Yeah, but it was all just harmless stuff..." he faltered, "...wasn't it?"

Carter squinted, "I'd check that out if I were you."

All three of them moved to Zane's office, and Jania followed.

Zane surveyed his desk first without touching it; nothing seemed out of order. "I really don't think she messed-" he reached toward his desk, and instantly a piercing alarm blared. Everyone ducked and covered their ears.

"What is that?" Allison cried.

"I don't know!" Zane hollered back.

"Whatever it is," Carter added, "I sure wish it would-"

Suddenly the beeping ceased.

"-stop?" Carter finished in the silence that left their ears ringing.

"Sorry guys," Zane said, picking his head up, "I didn't think I had-"

The minute his head showed above the desk, the alarm blared again.

"It's something on the desk!" Allison cried. "What did Jania mess with?"

"It was..." Zane tried to ignore the painful squealing and scan the desk for the little paperweight clock she had been toying with. He found it and picked it up. As soon as his hand covered the LED screen, the beeping ceased. "This!" he held it out toward Allison.

"Lemme see that," Carter said, being sure to keep the screen covered as he took it from Zane. Very carefully, he slipped a piece of paper over the screen under his hand, and very slowly set the clock on the desk and removed his hand. Now the clock was only covered by the paper. It remained silent.

"Here goes nothing," Carter muttered, and pulled the paper covering off. Instantly, the siren shrieked again, ceasing instantly only when Carter replaced the paper.

"It's a motion sensor now?" Allison inquired.

Carter and Allison looked at Zane, and all three of them looked over to Jania, who was still curled in a ball with her head in her hands, like the rest of them had been at first. Evidently she was having a harder time overcoming her fear than they were.

Allison returned her gaze to Zane, who began pulling at his collar uncomfortably. "So, um," he stammered, "what else has she messed with?"

Carter scoffed, "What, you didn't know about this? I have been chasing her trail all around this building all morning! We have wrenches behaving like tasers, I had to help Dr. Swimmer-"

"Dr. Schwinn," Allison corrected.

"Yeah, him; anyway, Jania had gotten a hold of a pair of tool-equipped cufflinks-"

"The Swiss-Army links he's been working on?" Zane brightened.

Carter glared at him, "Jania figured out a way to make them turn into a pair of handcuffs with no key hole. Do you have _any _idea how difficult it is to get a man out of handcuffs when you can't unlock them with a key?"

Zane winced in sympathy, "Ouch, I'm sorry-"

"Zane, I thought I told you to watch her yesterday!" Allison rebuked him, "She was entirely your responsibility."

Zane raised his hands defensively, "Hey, I did my best okay? She only disappeared a couple times, and besides, it doesn't sound like she's done anything life-threatening-"

"Oh, did I forget the one with the microwave?" Carter resumed.

"Microwave?" Zane asked.

"You remember that Dr. Blaine and his team were conducting an experiment with microwaves, don't you?" Allison said.

"Yeah, I-" Zane's jaw dropped and he covered his face with his hands, "No way! Don't tell me Jania found their lab!"

Allison pressed her lips, "Yep, and she messed with it. We still haven't figured out exactly what happened, but Blaine and a few of the techs are currently in the medical ward with mild radiation sickness. We found them trapped against the walls of their lab, under heavy blankets of the microwave radiation."

"They're lucky they weren't cooked!" Carter interjected.

"We've had a few other cases in medical who were unexpectedly wounded in some way, Zane. I realize she hasn't killed anyone yet, but I'm afraid Jania can't be around here any more."

"So," Carter sought to clarify, "are you saying you want her in lockup?"

"Yes," Allison replied, turning back to Jania.

The girl was no longer in the corner where she had been cowering.

"Where did she go?" Zane asked.

Carter and Allison exchanged glances.

Carter sighed, "You want me to-"

"Yes I do," Allison responded before he finished.

"On it," Carter replied, and the threesome ran back out into the hall.

"Where would somebody like Jania go?" Allison asked Zane, after making yet another emergency announcement on the PA system.

"I don't know..." Zane wracked his brain, "maybe someplace she's been to..."

"That's true, all the places she meddled with were areas you would have been in for lengths of time. So where else has she been?"

Zane scratched his head as security guards dashed around the facility. "Well, when we first brought her here, we took her down to Sector 4 to get a craniogram-"

Allison immediately dialed Carter, "Check Sector 4!" she ordered.

"On my way," Carter responded.

Meanwhile, in Sector 4, a lone girl worked in the shadows among wires, switches, and blinking lights. She sang a strange sort of song as she spliced wires and turned dials.

"_Eetissapac lah-eenairk tayrellesca_

_ Nushaytilibaheer spanniss_

_ Zdwortkelleh tnem' gah_

_ Dowk nushayvitka eethe."_

Footsteps in the hallway caused the girl to cease her work. She glanced toward the door, staring without breathing, then she stood, silent as the shadows around her, and walked out of the lab, taking care to close the door behind her.


	11. Chapter 11: Unexpected Development

On his way to Sector 4, Carter put in a call to Henry.

"You might want to get down here," he told the engineer.

"What's wrong, Jack?" Henry asked, "Is Jania in trouble?"

"More like she's causing trouble, and she may have snuck into Sector 4." Carter explained, "I'm there right now."

"I'll be right down as soon as I can get an elevator," Henry said.

Carter was so accustomed to having to dodge around people heading the opposite direction that he almost missed seeing a particular person padding silently away from the craniograph lab. He stopped and grabbed Jania before she could pass him.

"Oh no you don't!" he cried, stepping behind her and slapping cuffs on her wrists.

Just then, Allison and Henry walked up.

"Oh good, you found her," Allison sighed with relief, but Carter shook his head.

"I caught her on the way up," he informed the two scientists, "whatever she was doing down there, she might have already finished."

"I'll take a look," Henry volunteered, proceeding to the lab.

"I'll join you in a second, Henry," Allison called after him, "but first I have a request for Sheriff Carter."

Carter half-smiled, "What sort of request would that be?" he asked cheekily.

Allison looked at him seriously, "All right, it's not often that I would do this, but Carter... I need your help."

Allison joined Henry in the craniograph lab. The engineer was looking uncommonly puzzled as he surveyed the crossed and spliced wires on the device itself, and the reams of new data on the readout screens.

"What was she doing?" Allison asked him.

Henry folded his arms and shrugged with a sigh, but there was a gleam of admiration in his eye. "Well, I can't say I completely understand, but-"

"But what?" Allison prompted.

Henry shook his head, "In all my years as a mechanical engineer, I've never seen anything like what this girl can do. It's brilliant," he remarked.

That evening, back at the Sheriff's office, Carter paced the floor amid stacks of files while Jo waded through a pile herself on the desk. She slammed a file down in disgust and rested her forehead on her hands.

"Remind me again why Allison roped us into doing _her _job _and _ours?" she groaned at Carter.

Carter shook his head, glancing over at the cause of all their problems-Jania- patiently watching them from within the cell. "Okay, Jo, here's the thing," he leaned over his deputy's desk, "Allison's team at GD have been searching for answers all week now, and have not found anything beyond more twisted details of Project Jupiter, and with every detail, there comes another mystery. I guess she thinks we might be able to find what they're missing. The key to Jania's identity."

Jania perked up, "The key to the cell is a six-digit-combination lock of digits 4-6-1-9-4-7, the founding day of Eureka, Oregon. My identification number is the date of my parturition, 2-8-1-9-8-2, given to me at 5:26 AM." She concluded with that same inane smile she always wore.

Carter stared at the girl, "Parturition?" he echoed.

"She means birth," Jo said, then stopped abruptly with a strange look on her face. "Gosh, I wish Andy were here... Wait, 2-8? February 8, 1982?" She dug through the pile for a particular file and began leafing furiously through it. "That's weird," she muttered.

Carter turned back to her, "What is?"

"Jania's birthday matches the date the Donovan's first child died."

"First child? Wait, I thought Zane was an only child."

Jo showed him the Donovan file, "Well, he was, for most of his life. She died when he was five."

Carter started and peered closer at the date of death printed. "At 5:24 AM," he stated.

Jo and Carter locked eyes, each knowing what the other was thinking. "Creepy," Jo murmured, "A young girl dies of a fatal disease-"

"Exactly two minutes before a super-genius is born?"

Carter picked up the photo of the Donovans. "This is just too much of a coincidence," he muttered, striding over to the cell. He showed the picture to Jania. "Do you know who these are?"

Jania smiled fondly, almost babyish in her reaction. "Mommy-Daddy!" she gurgled happily. "I love you, sweetie!"

"Wait," Jo said, joining Carter at the cell, "The Donovan's daughter's name was Chloe."

Immediately, Jania dropped in a dead faint.

"Holy-" Carter gasped, punching in the combination and throwing open the door. They eased Jania onto the bed and began rubbing her hands. Suddenly, she blinked and opened her eyes. "Hello," she said, sitting up and speaking in a clear tone of voice.

Carter and Jo froze momentarily. "Hello?" Carter replied cautiously.

Jania seemed more coherent than they had ever seen her. She looked at both of them curiously. She turned to Carter. "I know you, don't I?" she thought for a moment, "Your name's... Jack, isn't it?"

Carter and Jo glanced warily at each other. "Have we met before?" Carter asked her.

Jania shrugged, "Well, you said my name."

"Your name is Jania, right?" Jo inserted.

The pair were surprised to see her wince at the name, "No, actually, it's Chloe."

Jo's jaw dropped.

"What?" Carter gasped.


	12. Chapter 12: Escape

"_You're _Chloe Donovan?" Jo asked incredulously.

"Wait a sec," Carter said, putting his hands on his hips, "If you're Chloe, than who is Jania?"

Chloe blinked and looked distant. "Jania is...well, she is me, I guess. I don't really know." She frowned, "I guess I'm used to it because I've lived with it my whole life, but it almost feels like I'm two people in one body."

"Like the opposite of Janus," Jo offered, "instead of one person with two faces-"

"Right, I feel like two people with one face!" Chloe finished. She looked around. "Wait, I was-is this Eureka, Oregon?"

"As a matter of fact," Carter replied, "It is."

Chloe's face lit up, "Really? I actually made it? I never thought I could." Her smile dimmed as she gazed around the cell. "Umm, why am I locked up?"

Jo moved forward, gazing at her through the bars, "Because Jania caused a lot of trouble when she was loose."

Carter still couldn't fathom how on earth Jania and Chloe could be the same person. "Chloe, would you mind telling me _what_ Jania is, exactly?"

Chloe pondered, "I think it must be some sort of brain implant or something, because the weirdest thing about it is I have all these memories, but I feel like I saw them through someone else's eyes, yet I know they are mine, almost as if I am conscious in two contexts, the context of Chloe, and the context of Jania."

"Was there anything unique about Jania? Did you have some sort of handicap?" Jo inquired, fully aware that the object of their assignment, Chloe aside, was to find out as much about this mysterious entity as possible.

"Handicap?" Chloe repeated, "no."

"Then why the implant?"

Chloe shrugged casually, "I would assume it was a cranial enhancer or something, because I distinctly remember being the only ten-year-old in my class-"

Carter tried to reassure her, "Well, that's not abnormal-"

"-at Harvard," Chloe finished.

Carter gaped audibly, "_What_?"

Jo grinned, imagining what it would be like to be so much smarter than everyone, years ahead of the wisest people, but Chloe read her face and shook her head.

"It's not as wonderful as you might think, Deputy," she remarked sadly, "Jania-it was hard being Jania. Living the mental functions of a super-genius, I discovered that the implant knew everything-and nothing."

Carter frowned, "Come again?"

Chloe explained, "While Jania seemed to fly through tests, essays, exams, and algorithms and all the 'ometries' and 'ologies' and 'isms' with perfect ease, she-I-had no capacity to relate to people." Chloe blushed, "I assume you've experienced Jania's manner of social interaction already, otherwise you wouldn't mistrust me so much to lock me in a cell and watch me so close."

Carter agreed, "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Chloe bit her lip, "At first, mom and dad allowed me to be Chloe at home and Jania at school without letting anyone know that Jania was an implant. They even made sure that Jania was not even connected to our family, naming me after the head scientist who performed the operation. I was Jania Masterson, student extraordinaire."

"So you know about Dr. Masterson?" Jo asked, still behaving like the whole thing was an information acquisition.

Chloe scowled, "Only vaguely. He never talked to me at all, only to everyone around me. It was as if I was some sort of AI machine he was in charge of activating and periodically testing. I remember having to do-oh, all sorts of things! Neurological tests, physical tests, academic tests, psychological evaluations, the works." Chloe frowned and rubbed her forehead, and Jo immediately thought of Zane; perhaps the two were related after all. "The only thing is, when Jania is active, it's almost like the me-that-is-Chloe is pushed to the background. As Chloe, I am only a girl of average intelligence. I'm guessing that's why Mom and Dad decided to permanently activate Jania, shortly after I got into Harvard. Without her, there was no way I could have finished."

"Do you remember what your field of study was?" Jo asked, astonished by the tale, but wondering if the subject Jania studied had anything to do with the reason behind the project.

Chloe shook her head, obviously pained by the recollection for some reason, "That's just it; I know what she saw and where she went, but there is no way I can comprehend everything she did, at least, not with my Chloe-intelligence. I have vague memories of everything she saw and experienced, but I don't remember having control over my actions, I mean, Jania could be her own person, with my memories, just like I can be myself with hers."

Jo looked at Carter, "That's why Jania was so attached to Zane! She remembered him from Chloe's memories!"

Chloe looked visibly shaken at Jo's remark. "Did..." she gasped, "Did you just say Zane? As in Zane... _Donovan_?" Chloe bit her lip, "He's here?" she whispered.

Jo nodded, and Chloe collapsed weakly on the bed, tears suddenly appearing in her eyes.

"He..." she choked, "he was born while I was at a special academy designed to prepare me-or rather, prepare Jania-for early entrance into Harvard. I had not been home since entering the academy, and I went straight from there to Massachusetts. The only time I ever saw him was on the computer screen, when my parents would chat with me over video. I watched him grow up till he was seven, and I was in my second year at Harvard..." Chloe paused and sobbed a bit to ease her emotions, "...then Mom and Dad said goodbye. They told me that Jania was better for me than anything a family had to offer. They said that," Chloe steeled her jaw, "but I knew it was because they realized their mistake, and they would rather abandon me and try raising a normal child in Zane than correct my condition. Jania became my 'normal' self from then on. They ended the call by activating Jania, and since no one at Harvard knew my real name, it was never deactivated..." she smiled ruefully at Carter as her tears subsided, "till now. I guess Jania got the idea to begin searching for her family once I graduated." She shook her head, "I just can't believe I'm here!"

Jo shrugged, "Well, as it turns out, Zane is pretty smart in his own right. He's the resident particle physicist at our local science research facility."

Chloe laughed, "You're kidding! Zanie, a physicist?"

Carter's cellphone rang, and as he picked it up, he chuckled and told Chloe, "I love it when you call him that. Hello, Henry," He said into the receiver.

"Jack, you won't believe what we found. Do you still have Jania?"

Carter smiled and winked at Chloe, "Yeah, we do, and as a matter of fact, we've been talking-"

"Okay, good keep her there," Henry apparently did not hear what Carter had just said, "Remember how you found her in Sector 4? Turns out, she remembered the craniograph was down there. Jack, she's messed with it."

Jo was still hunting through files about Jania. One of the folders contained a sheet of music. Jo began humming the tune, sounding out the strange words printed under the notes.

_ "The activation code... electrodes augment_..." she hummed the rest of the tune as the words became more difficult. With a shrug, she tossed the folder aside.

Behind her, as she sung, Chloe seemed to drop instantly asleep, collapsing wearily on the bed. She shuddered violently and awoke again, with that strange, ethereal light in her eye. She immediately stood and moved silently toward the door of the cell.

"Henry," Carter was still trying to tell Henry about Chloe, but Henry was still too worried about the craniograph.

"Jack, if I can figure out what exactly she was trying to do, I can perhaps reverse it, but the algorithms she was working with are too advanced. Allison and I are on our way to my garage right now to see if we can find something that will undo the tweaking till we can return the machine to normal."

Carter burst out, "Henry! We've cracked it! The Donovans aren't scientists at all!"

Henry seemed genuinely surprised, "They aren't? Well, this is unexpected, even if it explains why we couldn't find out about them anywhere."

"Yeah, and there's more: Jo and I found the connection to Zane! She's not Jania, she's Chlo-" he turned to the cell to give a thumbs-up to Chloe... but it was empty! Carter nudged Jo and pointed to the cell.

"Oh, _gadblastit_!" Jo muttered. "I wasn't even watching her anymore!"

"What was that you said, Jack?" Henry asked, "You found Jania's connection to Zane?"

"Uh, Henry," Carter responded hesitantly, "did you say you and _Allison _were on your way to the garage?"

"Yes, I did; we're just pulling up now, why do you ask?"

"Which means that there isn't anyone besides security monitoring Sector 4 right now, is there?"

Silence on Henry's end for a very long time; then he asked, as if he already knew the answer, "Jack, did she-"

"Meet you there," Jack said quickly, and he and Jo took off for Global Dynamics right away.

Already within Global Dynamics, in the hall heading to Sector 4, a lone girl crept nearly invisible past security and cameras, humming a haunting melody to herself. She smiled. Jania had nearly completed her mission.


	13. Chapter 13: Jania's Master Plan

Carter and Jo arrived only minutes before Henry and Allison pulled up.

"How could she escape if you were watching her?" Allison demanded immediately.

"Sorry, Ali, it's just that something happened and we thought it was all under control!" Carter cried as they all entered the expansive rotunda at GD.

"She only has a few minutes' head start, so we might be able to catch her before she makes it all the way down there," Jo offered, "right?"

"A girl of Jania's intelligence might not need more than a few minutes to do whatever she was doing," Henry said as the four of them ran down the halls to Sector 4.

"Yeah," Carter added, "and remember, this girl is _fast _when no one is looking!"

"Oh!" Allison suddenly stopped and took out her mobile data pad. "Here's the security cameras just outside the craniograph lab." She showed the screen to the others, "Jania's in there," she pointed to the craniograph chamber, "I'm calling Zane, but till he gets here, how are we going to stop her?"

"I've got an idea," Carter said, and took off down the final hall.

He burst into the craniograph lab and called, "_Chloe Donovan!_"

Jania had been squatting next to the craniograph device, fiddling with some wires and dials. At the sound of her name, she instantly slumped to the floor. By the time Carter reached her, she was Chloe again, sitting up and blinking in confusion.

"Sheriff Jack!" she cried in surprise, "What was I-" she looked around in confusion, "What was Jania doing here?"

"Can you remember what she did?" Carter asked, helping her to her feet as Jo, Allison, and Henry arrived.

"Well," Chloe said, "I remember this room..."

"Carter, what just happened?" Allison asked.

Chloe looked at Carter, who nodded and allowed her to step forward.

"You must be Drs. Blake and Deacon," she said, extending a hand, "My name is Chloe Donovan."

Both Allison and Henry started in surprise. "Dono-" Allison burst in surprise, but was too overcome to finish the word.

Henry just laughed, "So if you're Chloe," he said, "then Jania is...some sort of cranial implant, I'm guessing?"

Chloe smiled, "You guess correctly; Jania is the prototype for a project designed to test whether a normal child could be conditioned and mentally accelerated to become a genius."

A signal on the craniograph beeped, and Chloe returned her attention to the machine.

"Wait a minute..." she muttered, working her way around the machine to the control panel outside the chamber, "I recognize this."

"I scanned you in this very lab just before Sheriff Carter took you in," Henry supplied.

Chloe shook her head, "No; I mean, I remember that, but I've seen... I remember seeing blueprints of this machine."

Allison leaned over to Carter, "I thought Jania and Chloe were separate."

"Sort of, but they're still the same brain, so one will have memories of the other, but not be able to control the movement or thought processes of each other. Jania is her own person with Chloe's memories, and Chloe has Jania's memories, but other than that, they are entirely individual."

Allison raised her eyebrows, "Interesting," she murmured.

Chloe was looking over the mechanism and controls, trying to remember their significance. "Accelerate cranial capacity..." she muttered in a singsong tone, "something about permanence..." She looked up. "I know exactly what Jania was trying to do!"

Carter ran to her side, "What? What was it? Can we stop it?"

Chloe's eyes darted back and forth, "I-I don't know!" she cried, looking very disoriented, "It's all too confusing for me! I'm not entirely certain, but I think Jania figured out how to rig this machine to use radiation to alter brain chemistry, causing it to amass technical knowledge with the empirical senses and translate that into technical data, which is then stored until required."

Carter shook his head, "All right, you sounded like Jania for a moment, there."

Chloe wiped a hand across her forehead and laughed breathlessly, "I'm sorry; what I said was-"

"Jania figured out what a normal brain would need to become like hers," Allison answered, "and she knew she needed a machine like the craniograph to do it."

Chloe nodded, "And the thing is, I think she found out how to alter a person's mind enough that it would be permanent."

"So..." Jo wondered aloud, "why is this such a serious thing? She's altered this machine, but what did she want to accomplish?"

Henry had been studying the readouts and the formulae on the machine's data screens. "Well, I can tell you one thing," he announced, "She's amplified the power intake and output of this machine, so that a whole lot of power from everywhere is siphoned off, channeled into here, and the radiation, instead of being contained in the chamber, seems to instead spread to everywhere around it." He looked up at Allison, "The radius extends to the limits of Eureka in every direction."

"She's going to brainwash the _whole town_?" Carter asked incredulously.

"That's impossible," Allison objected immediately, "the human brain is fully developed by age 25. I don't think you could change someone's brain chemistry after that."

"Still," Chloe said, "That means that everyone under the age of 25 is vulnerable to the radiation from the craniograph."

Everyone looked at each other.

"Great! So, she's going to permanently brainwash all the _kids," _Jo stated.

Just then, the door to the craniograph lab hissed open.

"Chloe."

Chloe whirled around at the sound of her name. "Zane!" she cried happily.

The two reunited siblings embraced. Chloe pulled back and looked up at her younger brother. "I've been Jania to you for so long, how did you know who I was?"

Zane shook his head, "I can't even believe how this is possible. You're my _sister, _you're really my sister!" He hugged her again, "Mom and Dad told me you had died in infancy. I still can't wrap my head around it. But you-or, I guess, _Jania_-had said you were my sister, so I did some digging, especially around the name Dr. Masterson."

Chloe shuddered at the memory, "Ohh, don't even mention that snake!"

Zane grinned, "I found some of Mom and Dad's old stuff, like letters and forms, all directed to and from Dr. Masterson-letters and test results about you. Apparently, Project Jupiter was part of an experiment to see if a child of average intelligence could be artificially enhanced to super-genius status. I should have figured all this out earlier, I'm so sorry, Chloe! My whole life, I believed that my older sister was born with a life-threatening defect, and that Dr. Masterson was the one who tried to save my sister's life."

Chloe frowned, "Instead of actually being the one who stole your sister's life." She scowled, "Mom and Dad liked Eureka, didn't they? I guess they thought they would not fit in unless they had a super-genius child like the other families." She huffed and shook her head, "Logic follows that they would jump at the chance to artificially enhance the intelligence of their first child! Then, when they see what a mistake that was, they-" she choked and a few tears appeared in her eyes, "-they abandon that 'mistake' and start again, this time willing to 'do it right.'" Even through her tears, her eyes shone with pride, "I'll bet they never thought you would succeed naturally at what they failed to do artificially!"

Zane smiled and shrugged modestly, "You're right, they never did. I ran away from home to go to college on my own terms, and I never saw my-_our_-folks after that." Zane kept his arms around Chloe, "But now that I've found you, and you're alive and well, I'm not gonna let anything else happen to you."

Chloe glanced at the craniograph, "But if we don't figure out a solution fast, something very bad will happen to all the rest of Eureka."

Zane strode over to it, but the readings were not ones he was familiar with. "These are new formulas," he observed, "these are more than just reading brainwaves."

"That's right," Henry agreed. "Jania has reprogrammed the machine to alter brainwaves instead of record them."

Zane turned back to Chloe, "So, what do we do to fix it?"

Chloe sadly shook her head, "I don't know."

"Wait a minute," Zane moved back to her, "you're the one who did this, right? How could you not know how to fix it?"

"No," Chloe replied, "I didn't do this, Zane; Jania did. Only Jania could fix it, but she doesn't want to. Think about it! If we activate Jania again to solve the problem, she'll only finish what she started and Eureka will be a town full of kids so smart they'll either overload or be exactly like Jania. This brain-implant? It doesn't work! It ruins its host!" Tears sprang into her eyes. "The only way to stop the radiation from affecting the whole town is to find some way to absorb it."

"But what could possibly be strong enough to absorb the amount of radiation intended for a whole town?" Allison objected.

Everyone stared around the room, thinking furiously. Chloe looked up at each one in turn. "It's me," she said hollowly. "The only one strong enough to absorb all the radiation this machine will put out is me."


	14. Chapter 14: Last Hope

Henry shook his head at Chloe's proposition as the rest of the group stared at her, aghast. "No person could be that strong-"

"I'm talking about Jania," Chloe explained, "Jania can absorb the cerebral-enhancing brainwaves, and since she is already a super-genius-"

"The enhancement could not enhance her further, so the energy, once absorbed, will only dissipate," Henry finished, seeing her logic.

"Like a power surge on a computer?" Jo asked.

Chloe smiled, "Exactly."

"Wait," Zane objected, "if we overload Jania, wouldn't that kill you?"

Henry shook his head, "Overloading the implant won't kill her," he explained, "ostensibly, it would only shut down Jania."

Zane raised his eyebrows, "But-" he prompted Henry.

The older scientist sighed, "There is a risk, since the apparatus has been implanted in her brain for so long, that in shutting down Jania-"

"It'll be fine," Chloe hastened to reassure her brother, "I never wanted this anyway; it'll feel good to be normal again."

Zane gazed worriedly at his sister, putting his arms around her, "But Chloe," he whispered, "would you really be normal again?"

Chloe bit her lip to suppress her apprehension, and put on a brave smile as she looked up at Zane. "There's only one way to find out."

She glanced at Henry, who checked the readings on the craniograph. "It's ready," he said soberly.

Chloe turned, against Zane's protests, and approached the whirring machine. "Maybe it's best if we activate Jania just before it goes off, to make sure it can absorb the radiation like we want it to."

"How are we going to do that?" Henry asked her.

Jo blinked and her head snapped up, "_The song!"_ she cried.

"What song?" Chloe asked, even as everyone else smiled and nodded as if they knew exactly what Jo was talking about.

"Chloe," Carter asked, "do you ever remember some sort of music playing just before Jania would activate?"

Chloe frowned, "Well, I know that, all growing up, they would make me unconscious or put me to sleep just before I awoke as Jania. I don't remember any song."

"But Jania knew the song," Carter informed her, "she would sing it all the time."

"Like when she was working on something," Zane supplied.

"Or when she was thinking," Jo agreed.

Henry shook his head, "When I asked Jania about it, she became frightened." He turned to Jo, "Are you sure the song has anything to do with it?"

Jo nodded emphatically, "I was just thinking about it now: "_Dowk nushayvitka eethe: _the last line of the song is 'the activation code' sung backwards!"

Allison pulled out her data screen and began shuffling through files, "I think I remember seeing a music file somewhere, with a document, but I never opened it. Here it is! With all the words and everything!" She opened the document and read the eerie words aloud, "_The activation code: electrodes augment, synapse's rehabilitation, augment cranial capacity._"

Jo looked at Carter, "That must have been what happened back at the lockup. I found the file with the music printed out and sang it while you were on the phone with Henry."

"Which activated Jania, who could then break out of the cell," Carter finished, "Thanks, that was really helpful, Jo."

"Okay," Chloe said with a nod, "when I'm ready, play the song, and it should activate Jania in time for the craniograph emission."

Allison nodded, "I'll pull up the music file."

Chloe entered the chamber and sat down on the gurney. "Hit it," she told Allison. "And no matter what I-or Jania-say, stick to the plan."

Zane placed a hand against the chamber wall, attempting to dissuade his sister one last time, "Are you sure you have to do this?" he asked, "I just got you back, and I-"

"Zane," Chloe chided, crying herself, "I can't live like this. My last memory of my parents is them saying goodbye to me when Jania would be activated for the rest of my life. A genetically-altered super-genius can't be a normal person. I can't let that happen to the kids here. I have to do this."

Zane frowned and shook his head, "But what if it doesn't work, and you forget me?"

Chloe Donovan smiled through her tears, "You're my brother, Zane," she said gently, "I would never forget you."

Zane backed away from the chamber, and Chloe nodded to the scientists. Allison played the infamous tune one last time. A shudder ran over Chloe's body, and she blinked. Jania was awake.

"No!" Jania screamed when she surveyed what they had changed about the machine, and that she was in the chamber, "This is incorrect! The current trajectory is incorrect! Continuation in the present course will resort in inevitable demise! Abort procedure! Abort procedure!"

Just then, the machine crackled into action, emitting a bright light that caused everyone to close their eyes and cover their faces as Jania screamed. Seconds later, it was all over. The light disappeared, and all sound with it. All that anyone could hear were the strained sounds of the craniograph powering down.

Zane furiously tried to rub the stars from his eyes. "Chloe?" he gasped, "Chloe!"

Chloe Donovan lay in a crumpled heap on the gurney. Eyes closed, she was barely breathing.

Zane ran down to her and threw his arms around her. "Chloe!" He cried, "Come on, Chloe! Wake up! Please wake up!"

Allison glanced at Carter and Jo. "Get her down to medical," she ordered briskly, wiping a stray tear from her cheek.


	15. Chapter 15: Waking Up

Down in the medical bay, everyone tiptoed around Chloe's gurney as she never moved or gave any sign but a heartbeat and steady pulse that she was alive. Zane would not leave her side, but held her hand and watched her till his eyes drooped.

Finally, Chloe stirred. Very slowly, she opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was the bed under her. The second thing was Zane's head resting on the bed next to her. Weakly, she lifted her hand and placed it on top of his.

Zane jumped awake. "Chloe!" he cried.

Chloe grinned, "Told ya I'd make it," she murmured softly.

Zane gazed at hear searchingly, "Are you sure you're all right? I mean, how do you feel?"

Chloe chuckled, "Well, physically I feel like I just pulled a stint as a human lightning rod."

Concern was still evident in Zane's eyes as he smiled, "And what about mentally?"

Chloe rolled her head side to side. "Um, I think my head's okay."

The worry began to leave Zane's face, "Okay, what's 2 + 2?"

Chloe actually laughed at this, "It's four," she answered.

"What is 42 x 3?"

"Ummm," Chloe paused only briefly to think about this, "126."

"What's the valence of ammonium oxide?"

Chloe rolled her eyes, "Okay, _that _I don't know!"

Zane laughed along with her, "I guess that would make you normal, then. And you know what that means, don't you?"

Chloe's eyes sparkled, "What does it mean, little brother?"

Zane grinned cheekily, "It means your little brother is smarter than you, for once!"

Chloe was recovering her strength quickly. She shrugged and shifted her position on the bed, "You know, after being Jania so much and caring _so _deeply about knowing all the right answers to everything all the time, I think I might enjoy being Chloe the normal kid who gets to learn everything the normal way." She winked at Zane, "You can teach me."

"I think I can manage that," Zane replied, squeezing his sister's hand.

Over at Cafe Diem, Carter walked through the doors to pay his daughter a visit.

"Morning, Sheriff!" Vince called, "Have they got everything straightened out at GD?"

"Yep," Carter replied, "Chloe's going to live with her brother, and everything's turning out just fine, Vince."

The tubby chef wiped his hands on a towel, "Can I get you anything?"

"Coffee is all," Carter responded, "and I'd like to talk with my daughter for a few minutes, if it's okay."

"Coffee and a kid, coming right up!" Vince chirped.

Zoe brought Carter the coffee and sat down to join him.

"What's up, Dad?" she asked.

Carter reached for his daughter's hand and clasped it in his own. "You remember earlier this week, when you asked me if I ever wanted to make you into a genius kid?"

Zoe squirmed at the question, "Well, yeah, I remember, but Dad, honestly-"

"The truth is," Carter admitted, "I had thought about it once or twice."

Zoe stopped and stared at her father, "You did?" she cried, almost horrified at the thought.

Carter nodded, "Well, yeah, I mean, what dad doesn't want his daughter to shine above all the others?" he sighed, "But you know, after seeing Jania-seeing Chloe, actually, with a little implant called Jania-seeing what that did to her... it kind of got me thinking."

Zoe nodded, "I get what you mean; sometimes I wished there was something you could do to my brain so I would know all the answers, too. Go figure that this would be the week she showed up!"

"Something my high school principal told me once," Carter said, looking straight into Zoe's eyes, "He said that half of knowledge is learning. If you knew all the answers already, then it's not knowledge it's just passing tests."

Zoe pondered this, "Yeah, I mean, Chloe spent her whole life doing the 'knowing' part, and now she basically has to start from way back to make up for everything she now does not know anymore." She smiled at her dad, "I guess this would make me grateful for the opportunity I have to learn stuff, instead of already knowing it."

"That's my girl!" Carter enthused proudly, hugging Zoe. "And always remember: you're my daughter, and you're every bit as smart as you ought to be. I would _never _want to do anything to change that artificially."

"Me neither, Dad," Zoe replied.

THE END


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